Reviewer: Chris Delloiacono
Story Title: Inicico
Written by: Jen Van Meter
Penciled by: Francisco Paronzini
Inked by: Robert Campanella
Colored by: Christie Scheele
Lettered by: Jack Morelli
Assistant Editor: Harvey Richards
Editor: Joan Hilty
Cover by: Howard Chaykin
Publisher: DC Comics
The western genre is near and dear to my heart. Films like: The Good the Bad and the Ugly, The Wild Bunch, Shane, and The Magnificent Seven are among my favorites. To be honest, in the world of comics I haven’t read a lot of western themed material. Classic series like: The Two-Gun Kid, Rawhide Kid, and Jonah Hex all predated my love of the genre.
I’d highly recommend some more recent books like John Ostrander’s amazing maxi-series The Kents, as well as his excellent mini-series Blaze of Glory and Apache Skies. The finest “western†in comic form though, while not immediately identifiable as such, would have to be Garth Ennis’ masterpiece, Preacher. While it’s not set in the old west, it’s a modern day western, true to the stories of old, with a new spin. The reason for mentioning Preacher is two-fold. Not only is it possibly my favorite finite comic series ever, but also with its modern setting it does bear a passing similarity to the book I’m reviewing.
Cinnamon is a character that many comic readers probably aren’t very familiar with. She’s made only a few appearances since her debut in Weird Western Tales at the end of the 70’s. Ironically her most famous appearance is probably her most recent, issue # 7 of the current Hawkman series. In those pages we learned that one of the myriad incarnations of Hawkgirl was indeed this little known character.
With her short list of appearances, it appears DC felt safe allowing writer Jen Van Meter to take liberties with the character, thus retelling her story in the modern day. With her recent importance to the Hawk-legend, I can see why this may irk continuity junkies. Yet since the story can quite simply be taken out of continuity, just enjoy it for what it is. No muss, no fuss.
As an introduction the first issue serves its purpose. True to her characters roots, as a child Cinnamon watched as outlaws gunned down her father. Eventually she went set to destroy these men. Now Cinnamon works in Mexico doing various protection jobs, and has some mean pistol skills. Like many classic tales of the west, Cinnamon: El Ciclo is quite simply centered on revenge. Yet as a bit of a curve, the quest for revenge by Cinnamon is over, instead the daughter of one of the men she killed pursues her.
Ms. Van Meter brings us quickly into the dirty, unsafe world that Cinnamon inhabits. Cinnamon is a drifter and we don’t get much time to know the characters that she interacts with. The dialogue is solid, and Van Meter moves us through the first issue quickly setting up the story, while adding in just enough action to keep it interesting.
The pencils by Francisco Paronzini are reminiscent of Eduardo Risso’s work on 100 Bullets. While not as polished as Risso, the art fits the material quite well, adding the “dirty†look I mentioned, to great effect. The artistic storytelling isn’t perfect, as a few panels in the action scenes aren’t 100% clear. As a whole though the artwork is quite good.
I got to my comic shop about an hour after they opened, and I snagged the last copy of the book. While this may sound good, my friendly comic shop guy (Chris) told me they only ordered a few. Unfortunately with so many high quality books on the marketplace, and much like the current Human Defense Corps. mini-series, I see this book slipping through the collective cracks. It’s unfortunate as the wonderful cover by Howard Chaykin is almost worth the price of admission alone.
